UK visitor numbers to Florida hit 1.14m in 2023, with figures expected to surpass pre-pandemic levels for 2024.
Speaking at the US Travel Association’s IPW trade show in Los Angeles, Visit Florida Vice President of Marketing Brett Laiken said visitor figures in March this year were up 12% compared to the same period in 2019.
He added international visitor numbers for the whole of Florida are 1.7% up on 2019 levels.
Brett said: “We are fully recovered and I think we are the only state that can say it. Florida is a reliable destination for travellers. With the UK, we never left the market and remained committed to our travel trade partners through the pandemic, so that has really helped us with the recovery.”
Brett added that, while flight availability had been a challenge for the UK market over the past few years, seat capacity is now up 10% compared to 2023.
Visit Orlando also released figures at IPW, showing visitor numbers up to 94% of 2019’s levels.
Visitor numbers from the UK, which is the top performing market behind Canada, were at 877,000 which is up 8% year-on-year.
Visit Orlando President and CEO Casandra Matej (pictured) said: “We saw strong gains from all of our core international markets, including the UK.
“Orlando’s international growth is a testament to the uniqueness of our unbelievably real destination, the support from our travel trade partners and our emphasis on strategic marketing initiatives to help drive visitation from our key markets,” she added.
Visit Orlando will launch two new websites in June, including its trade-focused site and agent training tools. More details are expected to be announced shortly.
